18-meter-long whale found dead on Alexandria shore

CAIRO - 7 January 2018: A 18-meter fin whale was found dead on of the shore of the Moharram Bek district in Egypt’s Alexandria on Sunday.

The Egyptian Rescue team lifted the 4-ton whale and handed it to the National Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries.



The Head of Youth Love Egypt Foundation stated that it is likely that the whale washed up on the shore due to the monsoon season in the Mediterranean city.

“The whale should be transferred in a scientific way to obtain the maximum benefit from it, either through mummification or burial,” he added in a statement on Sunday.


A fin whale was found dead ashore in the Rushdy district, Alexandria - Egypt Today/Asmaa Ali Badr

Egyptian authorities also said that it is likely that the whale entered the Mediterranean Sea through Gibraltar Strait and then washed up on the beach of Alexandria city on Saturday evening.

Fin whales are endangered due to overhunting. The fin whale population in the Atlantic is threatened, at least 13,337 fin whales were hunted in Atlantic Canadian waters between 1903 and 1945, said Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

Fin whales are the second largest mammal in the world after the blue whale, according to the UK Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.